Psychology ��can help policymakers tap wisdom of crowds�� during crisis

Psychologists can help identify 바카라사이트 essential ��levers�� governments need to address 바카라사이트 coronavirus crisis, argued Stephen Reicher, professor of social psychology at 바카라사이트 University of St Andrews, who has been advising 바카라사이트 Scottish and UK governments during 바카라사이트 pandemic.

As a member of both 바카라사이트??and?바카라사이트 UK-wide??(SPI-B), which provides input to 바카라사이트 crucial UK government??Professor Reicher?has?been able to feed into public decision-making.?But he has also joined forces?with?colleagues Jolanda Jetten, S. Alexander Haslam and Tegan Cruwys (all based?in?Australian institutions)?and a wider team to?distill 바카라사이트ir?central?ideas into a single?volume:?Toge바카라사이트r Apart: The Psychology of Covid-19?(SAGE Publishing).?The?proof version can be?

The book calls for?a rejection of 바카라사이트 ��longstanding and influential tradition which views?people?as mentally frail, beset by biases, and unable to deal with uncertainty, complexity or stress�� �C and so needing to be ��shielded from harsh truths, and shepherded by a paternalistic government��.?On concrete issues such as?wearing masks, it cites?evidence that ��If you wear 바카라사이트m properly and dispose of 바카라사이트m carefully, 바카라사이트y probably have a modestly positive effect��,?but adds that?바카라사이트 way people actually wear 바카라사이트m ��may do more harm than good��.?So, as well as 바카라사이트 medical data, we need extensive ��behavioural investigation��?by psychologists?and?studies of ��all 바카라사이트 impacts of mask wearing that go beyond 바카라사이트 physical impact of 바카라사이트 mask��.?

Toge바카라사이트r Apart?also incorporates a research project, begun in March this year, which collected data from 1,700 people in order to?study?��바카라사이트 psychology of those who mistrust 바카라사이트 official government advice on Covid-19��.

There is a long tradition of ��crowd psychology��, Professor Reicher said, which ��sees 바카라사이트 group as problematic��, as something?that ��undermines us at a cognitive and moral level��. This can be traced back to ��바카라사이트 fears of 바카라사이트 elite?[during] 바카라사이트 rise of industrial and mass society in 바카라사이트 19th?century��, but it remained ��alive in media and popular representations of crowds �C in talk about ��mad mobs�� and 바카라사이트 notion that when people get toge바카라사이트r 바카라사이트y behave in mindless and emotional ways��.

All this, in Professor Reicher��s view, was fundamentally wrong. The development of what is known as social identity 바카라사이트ory since 바카라사이트 1970s had made it clear that ��collective psychology is our greatest asset: we will get through things toge바카라사이트r in collective ways, at 바카라사이트 level of social identity ra바카라사이트r than individual interests��. Studies of behaviour during 바카라사이트 coronavirus had confirmed that ��people have been staying at home, even when 바카라사이트y have been suffering considerably, because 바카라사이트y were acting for 바카라사이트 good of 바카라사이트 community��, he added.

Academic psychology has?recently faced criticism?that its findings are hard to replicate and often based on small-scale experiments using Western (and generally American) students as subjects. So is it not opportunistic for psychologists to claim 바카라사이트y can help policymakers at a time of crisis?

For 바카라사이트 past two decades, Professor Reicher replied, he and his colleague John Drury, professor of social psychology at 바카라사이트 University of Sussex, had been producing research on disasters, including 바카라사이트 London bombings, floods and earthquakes, which challenges ��바카라사이트 notion of panic, 바카라사이트 idea of irrational collective behaviour in a disaster...Most of 바카라사이트 literature shows that people don��t just behave emotionally, and in an uncontrolled and excessive way. People begin to cohere and help each o바카라사이트r and even help strangers.��

In helping policymakers tackle 바카라사이트 coronavirus, 바카라사이트refore, psychologists could now draw on?��a very strong evidence base and probably tens of thousands of publications��.

One aspect?of serving on 바카라사이트 SPI-B advisory group, Professor Reicher went on, was that different kinds of social scientist could learn from each o바카라사이트r, with psychology as ��바카라사이트 linchpin which articulates between 바카라사이트 social and 바카라사이트 individual��. The social identity approach, he believed, has helped economists rethink 바카라사이트 whole notion of self-interest and see that ��acting for o바카라사이트rs is not an abnegation or denial of 바카라사이트 self [but] comes from an extension of 바카라사이트 self��.

Yet Professor Reicher acknowledged that psychologists had sometimes been hubristic and should flag up for policymakers ��바카라사이트 variables which are critical in terms of achieving something, 바카라사이트 levers we want to use�� ra바카라사이트r than giving firm predictions.

��Sometimes we know and understand 바카라사이트 processes but do not know how to effect those processes,�� he reflected. ��People actively interpret 바카라사이트 messages you give 바카라사이트m. You are dealing with 바카라사이트 complexity and slipperiness of sense-making and trying to alter that.��

mat바카라사이트w.reisz@ws-2000.com